Drone Buying Guide 2021
Introduction
Brett Garamella, the Drone Pilot Pro here. There are a lot of drone options in 2021.
So first you need to decide what your budget is for your drone. Is it $150? Is it $800? Is it $2,000? Now keep in mind that there are a few accessories that you will likely need when flying your drone. So keep that in mind for your overall budget. And also keep in mind that prices of drones are likely to change over time. So click the links below this video for the most up to date prices. There's so many drones I could mention. For the sake of time and practicality, I've narrowed it down to my favorite two or three drones for each price category.
CATEGORY 1: UNDER $200
The first category is $200 or less. Now the DJI Tello is the first drone up. DJI is the leading company in consumer drones. The Tello flies for up to 13 minutes, shoots 720 HD video, and takes 5MP photos. You can change the batteries easily and it does some cool tricks like 360 flips and you can throw it in the air and it starts flying. You could also land it in the palm of your hand. It's a great drone for kids, families, and those who want to fly mostly indoors. It will fly outdoors on a non-windy day.
Next up is the foldable Holystone HS270 drone. This is a step up in camera quality and price. It shoots 2.7K video, and has a camera that tilts down 90 degrees. Unlike the DJI Tello, which records footage on your device, you have the option of recording your footage onto a microSD card with the Holystone HS270. The HS270 also comes with a really good controller for this price. And this is a GPS drone so it should give you relatively smooth flying and stability. It has a bunch of great features like Follow Me mode, Point of Interest, Waypoints, and TapFly, which all function correctly but don't expect the same smoothness and execution of features like this you'd typically see on a $1,000 drone. Obviously this is a budget drone, however, it will return to home just as well as those $1,000 drones and has landing lights on the bottom for low light. It has Normal flying mode and Sport mode for faster speeds, and flies up to 18 minutes. It comes with an extra battery with four LED lights to remind you of the remaining battery life. It can handle wind gusts up to about 50 miles per hour and it can fly about 1500 feet away. With all those features, I would definitely recommend the Holystone over the DJI Tello.
Last in the $200 or less category is the Snaptain SP510, which folds out and resembles the Holystone HS270. Now just like the Holystone, the Snaptain comes with one extra battery that has LED lights to remind you how much battery life is left, has a microSD card slot (card not included), and it is a GPS drone with a tilting gimbal and shoots 2.7K video. So is it better than the Holystone HS270? Even though the Snaptain is $10 more expensive, I would still recommend the Holystone because they have a great reputation for customer service. The Holystone HS270 also has a few more minutes of flight time than the Snaptain, and it flies about 500 feet farther than the Snaptain. The other features and camera quality are very similar otherwise, so those weren't much of a factor. So if you have $200 or less, I would get the Holystone HS270 drone.
CATEGORY 2: $200 to $500
First up is the Powerextra F11 Pro. This is one of the most affordable 4K drones. It has a GoPro style wide-angle camera at 120 degrees field of view, and is a GPS drone with no obstacle avoiding sensors. However, because it doesn't have any sensors you can fly it just above ground level and get some incredible low shots. It will follow you normally front and back and also from a sideways profile, which for this price is incredible! It has up to 28 minutes of flight time, and comes with an extra battery. So that'll give you about 50+ minutes of flight time. The F11 Pro has a range of about 1600 feet away, and it has other cool features like timed photos and waypoints. The only cons are the fact that the batteries take several hours to charge and it weighs over 250 grams, so you'll have to register it (in the United States). Both of those factors aren't really that big of a deal, but I wanted to let you know. All in all, this is a great drone for a beginner or someone on a budget who wants a 4K drone that is easy to fly.
Next up is the DJI Mavic Mini. The DJI Mavic Mini is smaller than many smartphones, weighs less than a Mavic 2 battery and flies up to 30 minutes. It has a 3-axis gimbal and shoots 2.7K video. It doesn't have any obstacle avoiding sensors. This is why I recommend getting the Mavic Mini Combo because it includes propeller guards which can protect your drone while flying indoors or near obstacles. In fact, it seems more like a propeller cage than a guard, providing more protection than a propeller guard for many other drones. For this reason alone, I recommend this drone for kids. Now folded up, the Mavic Mini and Mini 2 are DJI’s most portable outdoor drones, and unfolded it is nearly identical in size to the DJI Mavic Air. This is a great drone for someone who wants a light, portable drone or who needs a backup drone for more risky shots. The overall smoothness and image quality will be better than F11 Pro.
The last drone in this category is the DJI Mini 2, which is the Mavic Mini’s older brother. Now it's worth the upgrade from the original Mini because it is better in wind and has OccuSync 2.0, so it can fly several miles away if needed, giving you much better stability on a windy day and you don't have to worry about losing a signal. It also shoots 4K and is the same size and almost the same weight as the original Mini. So it comes in at under 250 grams with a battery. If you're on a budget, I would get the F11 Pro but if you can afford it, the Mini 2 is definitely worth it. I actually would recommend the combo which comes with three batteries and a nice carrying case. However, that will put you over $500 but you won't regret it!
CATEGORY 3: UNDER $1000
So you're looking for a drone under $1,000. These are what I consider cinematic drones at a reasonable price. First up is the versatile Parrot Anafi, which is the only portable drone with a camera that tilts up 180 degrees, including straight up. It also has a three-axis gimbal that shoots 4K HDR video with 100 Mbps bit rate, and zooms optically 2.8 times from 26mm to 78mm for video. The Anafi can fly in winds up to 31 miles per hour and shoots 21MP photos with an ability to fly up to two miles away. It also gives you up to 25 minutes of flight time and is portable for travel. Now there are three different Parrot Anafi options in this price category: including the base model or extended (which comes with a few extra batteries and a carrying bag); Parrot Anafi FPV with first person view goggles; and Parrot Anafi work, which allows you to capture 3D models. So the Parrot Anafi base model is the most affordable, but you also have options for an FPV experience, working with photogrammetry, real estate, and many other applications.
Next up is the DJI Mavic Air 2, which is the best value for the price. This portable drone shoots 4K up to 60 fps, and has more range (up to 6 miles) and flight time (up to 34 minutes) than any of these drones under $1,000. (Note: The Mavic Air 2S is expected to be released soon after the time of this writing). With its half-inch camera sensor, it is able to get very good image quality, taking up to 48MP photos and capturing 8K Hyperlapses. Because the controller is almost identical to the DJI Mini 2, you can use the Mini 2 controller to fly the Air 2 as well. By the time you're reading this, I imagine DJI will sell the Mavic Air 2 aircraft by itself, and the Mini 2 also by itself so that you only need one controller to fly two drones. If I had to choose a drone under $1,000, I would not hesitate to get the Mavic Air 2 (I would recommend the Mavic Air 2S when it is released), and I recommend the combo because it comes with three batteries, a charging hub, and a carrying bag that you wish you had bought if you only bought the base model.
The last drone in this category is the world's best fully autonomous self-flying drone, the Skydio 2, which is great for vloggers and anyone who wants to film themselves without technical skills. Skydio guarantees that this drone will not crash and will repair or replace the drone if this happens during the first year. It can shoot 4K up to 60 fps and 12MP photos. It also has a beacon, or what I like to call a magic wand, that allows the drone to follow you up to 1.5 km away. With the remote controller you get up to 3.5 km range. This drone is portable, but doesn't fold up like its peers. Skydio is also newer on the drone scene than DJI, and it's an American company with the best artificial intelligence on the market. It can be the dark horse in this category, but some might view it as a one-trick pony. While the artificial intelligence makes this drone difficult to crash, it doesn't provide as smooth shots as I would hope for while it tracks a person or subject. Thus, I would still going with the Mavic Air 2 (or Mavic Air 2S when it’s released) because of its longer flight time, better range, more portable, and the ability to upgrade to more expensive drones in the DJI lineup while gaining experience with DJI drones. I don't think you can make a bad decision in this price category; you're going to get a great drone no matter which drone you choose.
CATEGORY 4: UNDER $2000
This category is professional drones, no doubt about it. Let's start with my overall favorite drone, the one I fly the most and my recommendation in this category, the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. Sure it only shoots 4K up to 30 fps, but personally I find that this drone is so stable and gets such smooth footage and when you're filming with a drone, it's so far from the objects that you're filming that you don't really need the 60 fps - 30 fps, or 24 fps is plenty. Therefore this isn't as big a deal as people make it out to be; it flies up to 31 minutes and has a really impressive 5-mile maximum range. It also has a Hasselblad camera with a one-inch sensor with a 28mm lens. It has the ability to shoot in 10-bit DLog-M video for those professionals wanting to color grade. Active track is much improved and showed the world some cool new features when it was released, such as Hyperlapse, Boomerang, and Asteroid mode. As you can tell, I highly recommend this drone.
Now in a close second to the Mavic 2 Pro is the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2. Now one thing to consider is this drone is much bigger and less portable than the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, which is why I chose it second. However, a bigger drone like this often looks more impressive for clients and may be the drone that you want. It does have an advantage of shooting 4K up to 60 fps and also shoots in D-Cinelike mode, which to me looks slightly better than the footage from the Mavic 2 Pro. However, I'm just splitting hairs here. If you're a pixel peeper and need the best drone for under $2,000, this is the drone. It also includes obstacle avoidance on four sides and it's slightly faster than the Mavic 2 Pro, but only ever so slightly. Now with that said, personally flying both of these drones a lot, I find the Mavic 2 Pro slightly easier than the Phantom 4 Pro because the Phantom 4 Pro drifts ever so slightly and it's just a little harder to control than the Mavic 2 Pro. So keep that in mind. So for that reason as well, I have to recommend this drone as second in this price category.
Now last up are the Autel EVO II drones. The EVO II is definitely one of the top two consumer foldable drones in the market. So there are three different Autel EVO II drones, but they all have the same body. The only things different are the cameras and best of all, they are interchangeable so you can buy each camera by itself and swap it out, which is great for consumers, professionals and enterprise solutions, such as inspections, search and rescue, and many more uses. So when I mentioned the different EVO II drones, I'm essentially just talking about the camera and not the drone body. The EVO II drones are the EVO II, EVO II Pro, and the EVO II Dual. So they will all fly for up to 40 minutes, which in reality will be about 35 minutes. They have the ability to shoot native 10-bit 8k and 6k video with a processor able to handle those big resolutions. The EVO II has 12 obstacle avoiding sensors, which makes it similar to the first Skydio drone, the Skydio R1. They call it omni directional, which basically is true 360 obstacle avoidance, where the Mavic 2 has some blind spots that don't make it a true 360 degrees. Also the obstacle avoiding sensors on the left side and the right side of the Mavic 2 only work in Active Track and Quick Shot modes. So the EVO II will be better at avoiding obstacles as it always uses all of its sensors, even with its Active Track, which Autel calls Dynamic Track 2.0. Out of the box, the EVO II has less contrast than the Mavic 2, but in the app you can adjust that of course, or in post production. However, because the EVO II shoots 8K and EVO II Pro shoot 6K, you can crop into the shot and it will still have good resolution, perhaps its biggest advantage over the Mavic 2 Pro. Now one thing I was a little disappointed about - I wish the EVO II was smaller, but it's understandable considering it needed a bigger, more powerful battery for longer flight time, along with enough space to process that 6K and 8K camera without overheating. So it'd be nice if it were a little smaller, but having a foldable 8K and 6K drone is something I'm super pumped up about. The amazing thing that Autel has done with EVO II (which I've been saying for years) is the fact that you can buy the camera gimbal alone by itself and swap the 8K version for the 6K camera with the bigger sensor. So being able to buy any of the three camera gimbals by themselves is great because you can have one drone and multiple cameras. It will save you a lot of space in your camera drone bag. With all that said, I would still choose the Mavic 2 Pro over the EVO II Pro because the image color and contrast look better to me right out of the Mavic 2 Pro camera. Whereas, I'm not as thrilled with the EVO II colors. So for someone who doesn't want to spend time adjusting the colors in post production, the Mavic 2 Pro will be better. And like I said earlier, the Mavic 2 Pro is the easiest drone to fly in this price category by a slim margin. Therefore, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Mavic 2 Pro.
Now, DJI FPV was released this year. Though many would argue it is not a true FPV drone. I consider it a hybrid drone. For those looking to cross the bridge from traditional GPS drones to FPV drones, having this 4K 60 fps drone will enable drone pilots to get shots they normally wouldn't be able to capture. And flying in manual mode or FPV mode, which goes up to 87 miles per hour, will make you a better drone pilot. DJI has created an app (DJI Virtual Flight App) that allows you to practice virtually before attempting these aerial acrobatics in the real world. So I think this could be a great drone to have in your drone lineup, maybe not as your primary drone, but one you could use for commercial and business purposes. For certain types of creative shots, DJI FPV drone requires wearing goggles that come with a combo. So in most countries, this means you'll need another person who keeps an eye on your drone, also known as a visual observer.
CATEGORY 5: $2000+
So we're going to talk about the big dogs, the big drones. In this price range, you have a whole lot of options. For example, if you want a long range surveillance drone, you could pay $45K on the Vanguard by Airborne drone. But for that money, you get up to 94 minutes of flight time with an incredible 22 mile range! Now if money is not an object, then you can spend a few $100,000 and fly around IN your drone. But in this article, I'm going to be discussing the best drones over $2,000 for filmmaking and photography.
First thing you have to decide is whether you want to use a DSLR or a cinema camera. If so, I would recommend the DJI Matrice 600 Pro. Now for Sony camera users, you might like the Sony Airpeak which is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2021.
Moving on, we have DJI's Matrice 600 Pro, or as I like to call it, “the beast.” It will carry a payload of up to 13 pounds, or 6 kilograms, so you can mount different cameras from mirrorless to RED to Alexa Mini. The DJI Ronin-MX gimbal mounts directly into the Matrice 600 Pro. So you can use the same cinema camera on the ground or in the air without having to spend time balancing it. Thus allowing you to get smooth cinematic footage of the highest quality both in the sky and walking around. The Matrice 600 Pro can fly up to 5 km range. Now that total flight time depends on what camera you use. With a RED camera or equivalent, you'll get about 80 minutes of flight time. With a Zenmuse X7 camera or smaller, you get about 30 to 35 minutes of flight time. Also make sure you get the TB48S batteries because they'll give you a few more minutes of flight time. A nice feature is the fact that if one of the propellers stops working, the drone will not fall from the sky. DJI also has an RTK system for this drone if you want centimeter level accuracy for mapping and industrial applications.
Next up is the Sony Airpeak drone. As of the writing of this article, this drone has not been released, but it will be available for purchase in the spring of 2021, according to Sony. So all this info is based on what Sony has reported. Take it with a grain of salt. You can equip this drone with any Sony Alpha mirrorless camera, such as the Sony a7S III or the Sony a1. At first glance this drone looks a lot like the Inspire 2 with an FPV camera. The Sony Airpeak has obstacle avoiding sensors on all sides, including the top. It is worth noting that the Inspire 2 only has obstacle avoidance on the front and the bottom, and a cable for live feeds into your Sony camera. This setup is ideal for two people, a pilot and a camera operator. The FPV camera is most likely for the drone pilot, while the feed into the camera is for the person operating the camera.
If you're not going to use a DSLR or cinema camera, and you still have to have the best drones available, then you should consider the DJI Inspire 2 or the DJI Matrice 300 series. Now if money is no object, I would recommend getting the DJI Matrice 300 series because it does everything the DJI Inspire 2 can do, AND it has much longer flight time and the ability to fly in rain with an IP45 rating. And most of all, it's not affected by telephone wiring and other electric circuitry in and around buildings that cause interference on the Inspire 2. Unlike the Inspire 2, it has obstacle avoidance on all six sides.
The Matrice 300 is the Swiss Army Knife of drones and its predecessor, the Matrice 210 is also in that category. Though the software and ease of use is much better with the Matrice 300. It is the most versatile, industrial and cinematic platform available today. Its uses range from surveillance, thermal inspection, topography and cartography. The Matrice performs in extreme temperatures and weather conditions, such as Arctic and rainy conditions. With the Matrice 300, pilots can mount up to three payloads simultaneously including the H20 series payload, which is four cameras in one, a wide-angle 12MP camera, a 20MP camera with 23x optical zoom, a state of the art thermal camera, and a laser rangefinder. Holy Smokes! Are you kidding me! It's like a normal DJI drone on steroids with features like Active Track from extreme distances, and memory of previous shoots in order to save time and execute your project or mission. For cinematographers, you can use Zenmuse X7 camera with this Matrice drone, giving it 6K capabilities, or mount DJI Zenmuse P1 for photogrammetry that gives you full frame 45MP photos without the jello effect, using a global mechanical shutter. The Matrice 300 flies up to 55 minutes in a 9.3 mile or 15 km range, and flies up to 52 mph. Now the one advantage the Inspire 2 has is slightly more speed than the Matrice 300. And whereas the Matrice is built more for industrial applications, the Inspire 2 is built with cinematographers in mind. At the moment, the Inspire 2 is DJI’s fastest non-FPV drone, reaching up to 65 miles per hour and also capable of capturing stable video in 40+ mph winds.
Now the Zenmuse X7 gimbal camera has a super 35 sensor with 14 stops of dynamic range and the ability to shoot up to 6K in Cinema DNG and 5.2K in Apple ProRes, while capturing RAW photos at 20 fps at 24MP. This camera is compatible with four prime lenses with a front FPV camera, 360 rotating gimbal, and dual heating batteries. The Inspire 2 has the features needed for professional cinematographers. For photographers though, I would go with the Matrice 300 because you can use the Zenmuse P1, which at the moment is not capable with the Inspire 2.
DRONE GEAR GUIDE
If you want to learn more about these drones, I made a FREE Drone Gear Guide, which I just updated for 2021. In that guide you'll learn more about drones in this article, along with other drones for different budgets. I also included my favorite software and accessories. So don’t forget to download that drone gear guide by click on the image to the left or on the link above!
Brett “The Drone Pilot Pro” Garamella